Ahh the life of a GM. The sometimes rewarding and often thankless job of leading a bunch of e-people around by their noses for many hours per week. It takes a special type of person to be a GM and that type is one bound for a nice room with a small window and fluffy, white padded walls.
It's never very easy to be a GM. You need to find a style and go with it and be strong enough to not let other people and their expectations pull you out of the style. Are you the heavy handed type or do you spare the rod and spoil the child? How do you manage 50 or more people? Are you skilled enough to mediate disputes and arguments that you might not have even been around for? You can be the king GM that sits upon a throne and expects a guild to be a bunch of peons running back and forth with timber and gold. It's also just as easy to be the type that never claims any executive powers and slogs it up down in the mud with every other guild member. GMs are so many things wrapped up in one spicy burrito. We're leaders, organizers, regular members, mediators, investigators, bankers, librarians, taskmaster, whipping boys, scape goats, jailer, public speaker, resources, sadist, masochist, delegator, kings, jesters, and human resource specialist.
It's often very rare to really find positive feedback. No matter the job you do or how well you do it, you mostly hear the complaints and issues. How often do you really hear how good you are doing? It's far less common. More and more recently I've seen just how much leading WoW misfits around can truly kill a person's soul. I've watched people rise up and try to help and run away yelping like a spanked chihuahua in just a few short weeks. Some people can take the heat, some just GTFO the kitchen before their remaining sanity is eroded away.
To all the GMs out there-I salute you. Keep hanging around here and I'm sure we'll have great stories and ideas to share.
